Anika Elia Rodríguez (born 4 January 1997) is an American-born Mexican

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a defender for

Liga MX Femenil The Liga MX Femenil, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX Femenil for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Mexico. Supervised by the Mexican Football Federation, this professional league has 18 teams, each coincidi ...

side

Tigres UANL Club de Fútbol Tigres de la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, simply known as Tigres UANL or Tigres, is a Mexican professional football club based in San Nicolás de los Garza, a city in the Monterrey metropolitan area, Nuevo León. Foun ...

and the

Mexico women's national football team The Mexico women's national football team represents Mexico on the international stage. The squad is governed by the Mexican Football Federation and competes within CONCACAF, the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Associatio ...

Early life

Rodríguez was born in Torrance,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. She attended Torrance High School and played youth soccer for Southern California Blues Soccer Club.

Club career

Portland Thorns

In June 2020, Rodríguez signed a short-term contract with

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...

side Portland Thorns FC ahead of the

NWSL Challenge Cup The NWSL Challenge Cup, currently known as the UKG NWSL Challenge Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual tournament organized by the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the top-tier women's league in the United States soccer league system. Th ...

PSV

Also in June 2020, Rodríguez signed a one-year contract with

Eredivisie Vrouwen The Vrouwen Eredivisie () (Dutch for ''Honor Division'', ''Eredivisie Vrouwen'' before 2020), also known as the Azerion Eredivisie Vrouwen due to a 3 year sponsor contract starting from the 2022–2023 season, is the highest women's football le ...

side PSV. In April 2021, she signed a one-year extension.

Tigres UANL

Rodriguez was signed by

side

on 18 June 2022.

International career

On 23 October 2021, Rodríguez made her debut for the

Mexico national team The Mexico national football team () represents Mexico in international football and is governed by the Mexican Football Federation (). It competes as a member of CONCACAF. Mexico has qualified to seventeen World Cups and has qualified consec ...

in a 6–1 victory over

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Estadio Gregorio "Tepa" Gómez The Stadium Gregorio "Tepa" Gómez is a multi-use stadium in Tepatitlán de Morelos, Jalisco, Mexico. It is currently used mostly for football (soccer), football matches and is the home stadium for C.D. Tepatitlán de Morelos, Tepatitlán FC. T ...

Personal life

Rodríguez's younger sister, Karina Rodríguez, also plays for the

References

External links

* 1997 births Living people Citizens of Mexico through descent Mexican women's footballers Women's association football forwards PSV (women) players Portland Thorns FC players Eredivisie (women) players Mexico women's international footballers Mexican expatriate women's footballers Mexican expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate women's footballers in the Netherlands People from Torrance, California Sportspeople from Los Angeles County, California Soccer players from California American women's soccer players UCLA Bruins women's soccer players American expatriate women's soccer players American expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands American sportspeople of Mexican descent {{US-footy-forward-stub